(NUFORC Note: We express our gratitude to Nancy Talbott
for following up with this report, and for reporting back to NUFORC. The
BLT Research website is <www.bltresearch.com>. PD)

A triple-ellipse "thought-bubble" crop formation
found in rural Gardiner, ME, investigated by BLT Research Team Inc.

At about 2 am August 4th Witness #1, who had gotten up
to get some water, observed a bright white flash of light followed by a
small (perhaps flash-light sized) BOL down low over a hayfield across the
street from her house. The BOL bobbed around over the crop for several
minutes, then seemed to come closer to her location, then "went straight
up in a beam of light" and disappeared. At approx. the same time a
neighbor (Witness #2) whose house is approx. 75 yards away from the hayfield,
got up because her dog was barking loudly and repeatedly; she observed
that the dog was facing the hayfield as he continued to bark for about
5 minutes. Witnes #3 (the wife of the hayfield's owner), who lives several
hundred yards distant, woke up sometime after 12 midnight and heard a strange
"metallic-type" noise which lasted only a few moments: "I
have never heard that kind of noise before."

At about noon on August 4th the hayfield owner's 16-year-old
son went to visit his grandmother whose house is immediately adjacent to
the hayfield and discovered the new crop circles. The boy notified his
mother and step-father, who called the local police; the officer who examined
the field told the family that he did not think the circles were "man-made"
and suggested they notify UFORC, which they subsequently did. UFORC then
notified the BLT Research Team Inc. of the event.

On August 5, 2002, a BLT field-team arrived at the relatively
rural location; both team members have investigated crop circles in the
U.S. and in Europe, and one has extensive experience in many countries
over 10 years. A thorough examination of the circles and extensive interviews
were carried out.

The hayfield is on a dead-end street with perhaps 8 houses
along it. The field is about 2 acres in size and goes up-hill into a large,
partially open area; the house of Witness #1 is immediately across the
street from the field. Witness #2's house is about the same distance away,
but behind a row of trees which border the field on that side. Three contiguous,
flattened, ellipses were discovered in the lower (2-acre section) of the
field, with their edges just touching, creating what crop circle researchers
call a "thought-bubble" design. Largest ellipse was 65' at its
widest point; middle circle was 35' at its widest point; smallest circle
was 25' at its widest point. The centers of all three ellipses were considerably
off-center. There was a slight curve to the overall design, perhaps 20
degrees.

The plants (grasses and fescue with goldenrod, Queen
Anne's Lace, clover and milkweed) were fairly gently laid over, with the
thicker-stalked plants such as milkweed clearly showing bending at the
base. No broken stalks were found. All plants were swirled clockwise and
it could not be determined whether the swirls had begun in the centers
or ended there. The initial impression of the crop lay was of fluidity,
with a clear undulating character to the flow of downed plants.

The majority of the flattened plants were grasses (not
the cereal crops most typically involved) and the stem nodes of these plants
are so small that no real evaluation in the field can be made of stem-node
change (such as elongated apical nodes and/or expulsion cavities in the
lower plant stem nodes). The only visible significant change in any of
the flattened plants was the bending at the base of most of the larger-stalk
plants, such as milkweed. No plant or soil samples were taken in this case,
largely because of the plant species involved.

No compass deviations were noted inside the 3 ellipses
and no cell-phone failures or camera malfunctions occurred. A stop-watch
check (where one stop-watch is left outside the formation and the other
taken in with the field-team) revealed no time differences.

Photographs taken with flash cameras the evening of the
5th in the now 2-day-old event produced multiple "anomalous"
light phenomena (recorded on several different cameras) typical of those
seen in flash photos taken at other crop circles around the world.

The field-team's evaluation here leans toward this event
being "genuine" (not mechanically produced) because of the following
factors: (1) Node-bending at the base of the thicker-stalked plants and
no breakage at the base of any plants generally (especially the hay, which
was dry and ready for harvest); (2) the fluidity of the overall crop lay,
with at least two layers noted in several places; (3) the fact that all
three downed areas were markedly elliptical, rather than circular; (4)
the fact that all ellipse centers were markedly off-center; (5) the presence
of a double-center in one ellipse; (6) the animal disturbance; (7) the
eye-witness reports of unexplained light and noise phenomena at the same
time during the night the formation occurred; (8) the remoteness of the
location and our character-assessment of the people in the near vicinity.
However, without actual in-depth sampling of the plants and soils and subsequent
laboratory evaluation, no firm assessment can be offered.

http://www.nuforc.org/webreports/S24473.html

-----

Hello Jeff, I was recently in Maine and saw something
truly amazing. After watching the WGME news at 6 last Thursday night, and
seeing a story about a crop circle in Pittston Maine, I decided to investigate
things for myself.

With the release of the movie "Signs" I figured
that it was hoax to promote the movie but after watching the story and
seeing the circles for myself I was convinced it wasn't. After finally
convincing my girlfriend to drive there, which is about 3 1/2 hours from
where we are, we set out on our road trip.

When we arrived, it was approximately 2am. I had no Idea
where the circle was, so we drove around the area in which it was supposed
to be located and finally found a small wheat field at the end of a dead
end road.

I walked up into the field but did not see anything other
than deer beds and an eerie feeling that I was not supposed to be there.
We sat in front of the field for a couple of hours and watched the beginnings
of the meteor shower until we became tired and found a little spot to park
and sleep for a while.

Early The next morning we again drove around looking
for the circle and found nothing. I finally asked a little boy getting
his paper where the crop circle was and he immediately pointed down the
road and said "last house on the right, before the farm".

I found myself parked in front of the same house that
I was night before. It had a wheat field on both sides and I could see
nothing in either field from the road. I went to see if anyone was there
and a sweet old lady came out and took me to the field on the right of
the house. I was truly amazed at what I saw.

The circles appeared perfectly laid down in a clockwise
fashion and not one stem of wheat had been broken and the milkweed, which
grows shorter than the wheat and secretes a milky substance if touched
or bruised, was laying on TOP of the wheat totally unharmed.

After talking with the owner of the house for over an
hour, and taking pictures and videos, I was convinced that this was the
real phenomenon and no hoax. These circles where not meant to be seen by
people, they where meant to be seen from the sky and that was obvious.

The other thing that I found interesting was that the
neighbor claims to have seen anomalous lights the night before the circle
was found and a second neighbors dogs where acting strange and barking
in the same time frame.

The most obvious evidence to me was where the circle
was, if it was a hoax, why in the world would someone go all the way to
a little town in no-where Maine to do this. WGME was supposed to rerun
the story the next day at noon, they did not.